Luke Humphries, Gerwyn Price under high pressure at Grand Slam of Darts; who will make it and who will drop out?

Monday night the final pool matches in groups A through D will be played at the Grand Slam of Darts. Some players are already sure of a spot in the knockout phase and will try to secure first place, while others still have to pull out all the stops to make it to the next round at this prestigious tournament in Wolverhampton.

In Group A all darters can in theory still advance to the second round, although Alex Spellman is in a very bad position with zero points and a leg balance of no less than -8. The American can only continue if he wins 5-0 against Michael Smith, and then Nathan Aspinall has to lose at least 5-1 to Luke Humphries.

Humhpries is through with a win anyway, and is then also group winner. However, the world number one can also get eliminated in the event of a big defeat against Aspinall, but then Smith also needs a big win over Spellman.

The standings in Group B are a lot clearer. Chris Dobey is already sure of a spot in the knockout stage. Martin Lukeman, last year's surprising losing finalist, already knows he will not make it through the group stage. Dobey only needs two legs against Lukeman to secure first place in this pool.

Damon Heta and Jurjen van der Velde will decide in a straight duel who will advance with Dobey to the last sixteen. Depending on Dobey's result against Lukeman, Heta still has a minimal chance of taking over first place from 'Hollywood' in the event of a big win.

A similar scenario also applies to Group C, where Luke Woodhouse is already sure of a spot in the next round after two of the three duels following excellent victories over Martin Schindler (5-2) and Alexis Toylo (5-2). On the contrary, the big surprise is that Stephen Bunting can no longer make it to the knockout stage. 'The Bullet' lost 5-4 to both Schindler and Toylo.

Woodhouse is also the only one of the four players with a positive leg balance (+6) and needs only three legs against Bunting to secure first place. The other match in this pool is between Schindler and Toylo. The winner of this friendly will join Woodhouse in the remainder of this tournament.

Ricky Evans is the surprise leader in Group D, after victories over Gerwyn Price (5-4) and Stefan Bellmont (5-4). 'Rapid Ricky' has thus assured himself of a spot in the last sixteen anyway, while James Wade is the child of the bill. After two defeats and a match against Evans ahead of him, Wade can at most still finish third.

The main excitement will be in the match between Price and Bellmont. This is a knockout match; the winner goes through and the loser is out. Price also has a good chance of becoming group winner, as he has a better leg balance than Evans. If Evans loses and Wade wins, 'The Iceman' will finish the group as number one.